START THE CAR Andy Carroll being lined up by Everton in £20m deal that would bring him back to Merseyside

Everton’s under-fire boss Ronald Koeman has the West Ham striker top of his list to finally replace Romelu Lukaku

RONALD KOEMAN wants Andy Carroll to make a £20million return to Merseyside in January.Everton’s under-fire boss has the West Ham striker top of his list to finally replace Romelu Lukaku.

Andy Carroll is being lined up by Everton in a £20m swoop

Andy Carroll is being lined up as the man to replace Romelu Lukaku at Goodison ParkThe club’s failure to land a frontman after pocketing £75m selling Lukaku to Manchester United sparked tension between Koeman, director of football Steve Walsh and Goodison chairman Bill Kenwright.

Injury-hit Carroll, 28, joined Hammers from Liverpool four years ago having spent 18 months at Anfield following a £35m move from Newcastle.

He missed the start of the season with a groin problem but made his comeback in last month’s win over Huddersfield.

Carroll has 18 months left on his £110,000-a-week deal and West Ham could be prepared to look at a cash deal if they get the right offer in January.

Everton face Burnley on Sunday having won just twice in the Premier League this season.

Pointless folk comparing 'performances without AC' as in most cases we were playing with wasters up front, so the records are skewed.

Chica and Sakho together is another one of those "bleedin' obvious" issues that gets Slav bad press... he is doing an EU here... Sakho has to be 'punished', it would seem, in Slav's eyes, even to the detriment of the team.

AC is undoubtedly an asset, IF you can keep him fit, probably as a late sub against tired defenders, but WHU don't have the luxury of that, and Chica / Sakho are starters for my money.

Yeah those stats indicate that he makes a difference but then in the games without him over he years we've had to endure zaza, calleri and the rest in his place when in fact part of the reason we couldn't afford to replace him was because if the wages he goes up.

sniper, you saw a different spurs game to me , yes we looked comfortable but i can't remember once thinking we were going breakthrough and score. His fuck changed the game but to say we looked like scoring is blinkered to say the least.

Ian wright summed it up last night, him and hernandez are playing in places you don't want them to be i.e. outside the box when we're attacking and the reason for that is the midfield is creating nothing. That could also be the reason why so many of the strikers we've signed recently have looked shit .

Sniper 12:57 Sun Oct 1The joy of football debate eh, Snipe? I heard exactly the same as you but come to a different conclusion. I saw Wright's assessment as a veiled criticism of Bilic; affectively asking why you'd have Carroll's strength but play him wide and deep so often.

There will now be a counter-argument with Carroll critics suggesting it's the player's fault he ends up playing where he is. It always goes on and is usually based on who's side you take in the argument. Truth is though is that Manager's take the can so often because the teams formation and tactics is entirely down to them.

If true, and with Carroll's injury history, I think West Ham will have trouble turning down £20m but I bet Koeman would make better use of AC than we've ever done. I don't understand why we only see him as a big battering ram when he's obviously better than that.